Loki Appreciation 2018

[Raye]

one other interesting thing about the wall carving was the inclusion of Sekhemet. The Ghost Rider (as an aside, why was that bear not on fire? in the wild west Ghost Rider's horse was on fire, so the bear should be too) and other figures appeared in Loki's story, but not her. and she's an Egyptian goddess, so her inclusion seemed a bit out of place, but probably hints at more stories set in the past to come.

And yeah, Loki does not seem to have it in him to be gleefully evil any more, for sure. he's done some bad things here, presumably towards a larger not evil goal, but seems to have hated every minute of it. It's like, in the past he often did bad things with the intent of just causing trouble, but those actions often had good effects in the end. In the myths, Thor would not even have Mjolnir if Loki had not cut off Sif's hair. In the comics, the Avengers would not have formed if he had not used the Hulk to attack Thor. It goes on and on like that, it's often the way with trickster figures. But now, he sees that as a role that needs to be filled, and he's taken it upon himself to do it. He's not doing these things out of anger, or jealousy, or because he enjoys it. he does it to help in a twisted way, and does not enjoy the acts he has to commit. I hope that in time someone else will fill that role so he can just do his own thing.

[dr4conianlaw]

It's awful hilarious just how oblivious Dario is to the idea that any of this could be a bad idea. Loki goes to the whole effort of telling a very clear story about someone else who asked him for help and ended up with extreme buyer's remorse, but Dario isn't going to let that ruin his day with thinking about what it could imply. Just look at how pleased as punch the guy is while watching all of his men turn to hulks.

Speaking of expressions: Dauterman continues to be great at them, even in the very short time he has, and particularly with those very morose Lokis. He's really not been having much fun with the dark council... no wonder he's about to take time off for something much simpler, like running for president. ;P

Gotta say though, I'm very interested in the stirrings of what seem to be some kind of proto-avengers. I bet as we go forward we'll eventually see more to this flashback story, and actually see the team join together. There's already a clear hook to how it'll run parallel to our main plot- both the flashback's young Thor and modern... well, everyone, but especially us, the audience, are still trying to find out what 'worthiness' actually means.

...Plus, it just seems like a cool team. It'd especially be a crying shame if we never got a good look at that new (old??) black panther (?) lady.

[Raye]

Yeah an Avengers type team circa... what year was it, 800somethingorother i think, so right around the height of the Viking age, could be a lot of fun, and i really don't think we've seen the last of them.


Anyway, this just crossed my dash on tumblr, the full Stephanie Hans variant cover for Vote Loki:



http://stephanie-hans.tumblr.com/pos...the-industry-i

and now i see why his tie is red, to match the cherries in the little George Washington nod. but what's really interesting is that myth is all about how HONEST Washington was... and Loki is anything but. But on the other hand, the myth itself was a lie, so... it just goes round in circles.

[Shura]

It was a good little arc, maybe because I have a weakness for these kind of stories but I liked it and didn´t felt it was "just filler" (those who think that should watch more anime), but it´s true that maybe one issue would have been enough.
I think that even if it didn´t move the main plot a lot, it gave a few good details to look for in the future, besides how Dario didn´t notice (or didn´t care) the cautionary tale. Well, in the next issue he seems to be in trouble, and if an army of Hulks is not the perfect recipe for a complete disaster then I don´t know what could be.
Also yeah, it would be a shame if we don´t see more of those "pre-avengers", at first I thought they where just cool nods but the last panel was like " I really want to see more of them!"
About the church... yeah it´s a bit weird, specially given what we know about Vote Loki and that cult, but I guess one thing is have followers that pray to you and help to created a good image (like what we´ve seen with Thor in this arc and in the God of Thunder run) and other thing is a group of crazy people doing crazy stuff, something similar happens with his current position, there´s a differences between playing spies and mess with people´s minds (it´s the kind of things he usually enjoys) but backstabbing Freyja and see the dragon being killed is too much, but part of the price for a larger not evil goal, even if he said he wanted a church is much likely that he´ll use part of Roxxon money and support for his campaing.

Speaking about the campaing, I still think that his three motivations are:
1- legal protection
2- create a good image (because no matter if you are a better god, that if people still see you as a villains the risk will be there given the magic nature of the gods)
3- gain power (in a legal way) to do something they haven´t explain yet.

My thought of the epilogue is that the world has changed so much that the old monsters had been replaced by others much more reals and worse, the same way that what a long time ago was a mythical creature now it´s "just another superhero", which is kind of sad (specially for magic creatures) because the world has less and less magic and mystery so maybe that´s why Loki says he miss the prayer, as they said stories change, but this is not always for the better, in this case I see on one hand the story of a viking warrior that had an epic fight with a dragon to drink her blood, defeat a god and gain power and glory, on the other hand you have a businnessman that order his men to shoot down a dragon to create an army of monster and gain power, and his ultimate goal is no other thing that money, in the case of the gods we have seen that they have problems to fit in the modern world, and even with Loki who is one of the most open to changes it´s not strange if part of him kind of miss the magic and mystery (and in some way simplecity) of old times.

[Fanto.mx]

http://stephanie-hans.tumblr.com/pos...the-industry-i

and now i see why his tie is red, to match the cherries in the little George Washington nod. but what's really interesting is that myth is all about how HONEST Washington was... and Loki is anything but. But on the other hand, the myth itself was a lie, so... it just goes round in circles.

I like the contradiction here with the whole "Here's a completely fabricated story about how honest I am" idea from the cherry tree story, especially applied to Loki as a politician. And on an even more surface level, it's connecting Loki into the American political mythos.

But there's also some possibilities that you can read into here, since beyond the aphorism of "I cannot tell a lie" represented by cutting a cherry tree, there's the story, which centers around Washington and his father and his father's prized tree. Already you can probably see the one-to-one analogies you can draw there. But that has some interesting possible implications with what the story could be here if Odin gets involved.

[Raye]

It was a good little arc, maybe because I have a weakness for these kind of stories but I liked it and didn´t felt it was "just filler" (those who think that should watch more anime), but it´s true that maybe one issue would have been enough.
I think that even if it didn´t move the main plot a lot, it gave a few good details to look for in the future, besides how Dario didn´t notice (or didn´t care) the cautionary tale. Well, in the next issue he seems to be in trouble, and if an army of Hulks is not the perfect recipe for a complete disaster then I don´t know what could be.
Also yeah, it would be a shame if we don´t see more of those "pre-avengers", at first I thought they where just cool nods but the last panel was like " I really want to see more of them!"

sometimes i think people worry too much about how much an issue 'matters' to or advances the main plot. I'm more concerned with how entertaining things are, and I was pretty satisfied in that regard. And it did add to the main plot a bit, as well, and we got some more insight into how Loki and Dario think.

I like the contradiction here with the whole "Here's a completely fabricated story about how honest I am" idea from the cherry tree story, especially applied to Loki as a politician. And on an even more surface level, it's connecting Loki into the American political mythos.

But there's also some possibilities that you can read into here, since beyond the aphorism of "I cannot tell a lie" represented by cutting a cherry tree, there's the story, which centers around Washington and his father and his father's prized tree. Already you can probably see the one-to-one analogies you can draw there. But that has some interesting possible implications with what the story could be here if Odin gets involved.

That's a really good observation! The Washington and the cherry tree story really is perfect here, you can read so much into it. Probably they did not intend for it to go that deep, but still...

[Danvidar]

one other interesting thing about the wall carving was the inclusion of Sekhemet. The Ghost Rider (as an aside, why was that bear not on fire? in the wild west Ghost Rider's horse was on fire, so the bear should be too) and other figures appeared in Loki's story, but not her. and she's an Egyptian goddess, so her inclusion seemed a bit out of place, but probably hints at more stories set in the past to come.

And yeah, Loki does not seem to have it in him to be gleefully evil any more, for sure. he's done some bad things here, presumably towards a larger not evil goal, but seems to have hated every minute of it. It's like, in the past he often did bad things with the intent of just causing trouble, but those actions often had good effects in the end. In the myths, Thor would not even have Mjolnir if Loki had not cut off Sif's hair. In the comics, the Avengers would not have formed if he had not used the Hulk to attack Thor. It goes on and on like that, it's often the way with trickster figures. But now, he sees that as a role that needs to be filled, and he's taken it upon himself to do it. He's not doing these things out of anger, or jealousy, or because he enjoys it. he does it to help in a twisted way, and does not enjoy the acts he has to commit. I hope that in time someone else will fill that role so he can just do his own thing.

That is not Sekhmet. Though you see the Atlanteans princess and Western Ghost Rider three other figures are mentioned in the text while we see Bodolf Thor fight. One of the sentences is "On the plains of Africa, a panther snarled." So the image would be of the Panther God Bast\ Bastet or the Black Panther of the 890's whichever is more likely.

[Raye]

ah, i guess you're right. though in my defense, she is drawn more like Sekhmet is usually depicted in the actual wall carvings. Sekhmet = woman with the head of a lioness (or probably panther in this case) Bast = house cat (and usually not anthropomorphized)

anyway, Lee Garbett just posted this, and i thought it was nice:



http://leegarbettart.tumblr.com/post...commission-wip

[cosmicjoke21]

Go and break my heart why don't ya.

[Shura]

Very nice pic, I´ve already used to Dauterman´s Loki but I still miss Lee Garbett art.

Too bad Vote Loki is delayed to 15th (even if in the Marvel website the date is still 1st of June)
Also, just saw on twitter that Kieron Gillen already read the first issue and said it leans more towards political drama than broad satire, which makes me more curious about it and also helps to be less concerned about if it was going to have too much comedy.
The first page (and in some way the colour palette) suggested a more serious tone, but the premise and the cover suggest something more crazy, I hope it to have a good balance of both sides.

[rpmaluki]

This must be post Axis Loki. He had the perpetual frown for the rest of his run, he was so sad.

I do miss this Loki, he made me a dedicated comic book reader so it goes without saying that I absolutely love(d) him.

[kaimaciel]

Aw... I miss my angsty, nerdy magpie. He's my favorite Loki incarnation so far.

[Raye]

Very nice pic, I´ve already used to Dauterman´s Loki but I still miss Lee Garbett art.

Too bad Vote Loki is delayed to 15th (even if in the Marvel website the date is still 1st of June)
Also, just saw on twitter that Kieron Gillen already read the first issue and said it leans more towards political drama than broad satire, which makes me more curious about it and also helps to be less concerned about if it was going to have too much comedy.
The first page (and in some way the colour palette) suggested a more serious tone, but the premise and the cover suggest something more crazy, I hope it to have a good balance of both sides.

Huh, interesting. Good that he liked it, but I am honestly surprised it's not overly satirical, just because the writer is kinda known for comedy/satire, the premise is kind of absurd, and, yeah, the covers. And honestly, I personally was fine with that. Loki's been through so much hardship recently, I was just ready for him (and us) to have fun with all this.

[Raye]

So, Loki was barely in the Civil War event in Avengers Academy at the start, but he is ALL OVER the ending... Especially if you got Sif and Crossbones. too many pics to just post, so i made albums at imgur:

Sif and Loki: http://imgur.com/a/hxlCh

There was one before this where he kept trying to steal her sword and then she'd beat him up, and then she discovered that she could travel between realms, and decided she wanted to be an interdimensional monster hunter. with Loki's help, apparently. But the last part requires rank 5 and that will be.... tough... It's looking like i may have to choose between getting Red Skull's cell or ranking up Sif and Madame Hydra (Loki likes her ) and i'd be forced to choose Red Skull because once he's gone, he's gone, but I will be able to rank up Sif and Madame Hydra with absurd amounts of gold later...

Loki and Crossbones, this one's a doozy, tons of stuff, it's actually two questlines, Bloodstone: http://imgur.com/a/u3Eli and Red Skull: http://imgur.com/a/30fti

So, basically Crossbones tricks Loki into joining the Thunderbolts. In one instance in order to locate the Bloodstone, which then shatters. He was looking for it apparently under Fury's command as revealed in a later dialogue. This could point to Elsa Bloodstone coming in the future, which I would love, she's great. Second one is Crossbones getting Loki to help him defeat Red Skull. Crossbones ended up being both a lot smarter and a lot more 'good' than he first seemed, and he seems to be taking a special interest in Loki. the question remains why. He seems to be working under Fury, so that may be part of it.

and Loki and Agent 13, with a bit of Black Widow: http://imgur.com/a/30fti

this had big consequences cus Loki found Thor in the timefog. I'm betting this means that once the next zone opens up and we can recruit Hulk for real, Thor will be the next early access character.

that's as far as I've gotten with all these quests. as mentioned, Sif needs ranking up, but Agent 13 and Crossbones are both max rank, so... I dunno, i guess I may need to finish unlocking Bucky (should be done in a day)

[Sprite]

^ I take Avengers Academy is a decent game? c: